To serve as a liaison between NESACS and the Northeast Region of the ACS, Inc. (NERACS), which is the governance and financial overseer of the Northeast Regional Meetings (NERM). To communicate information about NERM and other specialized ACS meetings to the NESACS membership via postings on the website, articles in The Nucleus, and announcements to the NESACS Board of Directors. To assist in the development of plans for the organization and sponsorship of a future NERM by NESACS within its geographic boundaries. The Chair of the Committee serves as the NESACS representative to the NERACS Board of Directors.

Volunteer Opportunities

The Committee seeks volunteers to be part of the team that is currently involved in the organization and sponsorship of a NERM within NESACS to be held during 2021. Please contact the NERM Chair if you are interested.

With almost 950 registrants, including high school teachers and students, and more than 640 abstracts, the 41st ACS Northeast Regional Meeting (NERM 2016; Chemistry at the Crossroads of Energy and Life), which was hosted by the Binghamton Local Section in celebration of its 75th anniversary, took place on October 5-8 at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Binghamton, NY. The full program of the meeting is available online at <http://nerm2016.sites.acs.org/>.

Among the registrants were approximately 400 undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral research associates. The General Chair for NERM 2016 was Wayne Jones (SUNY Binghamton); Christof Grewer and Nik Dimitrov, also of Binghamton University, were the co-Program Chairs.

In attendance at NERM were members of the ACS Board of Directors (Laura Pence: District I; Ingrid Montes, Dorothy Phillips, and Kathleen Schulz: At-Large) and Allison Campbell, ACS President-Elect.

The meeting started on Wednesday afternoon with a keynote lecture by Susan Band Horwitz of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, on “Taxol, Tubulin and Tumors: A Study in Drug Development,” which was followed by the opening night social mixer, graduate school fair, exposition with 20 exhibitors, and poster sessions, including those for undergraduate research. The next three days were filled with many symposia, technical sessions, and workshops.

In addition, Jennifer Maclachlan organized a two-session program of oral presentations on “Small Chemical Businesses,” and gave two talks. This reporter spoke in a chemical education session about collaborations in the Middle East facilitated by the Malta Conferences.

Mindy Levine (University of Rhode Island, NESACS Chair-Elect Designate) was the featured speaker at the Women Chemists Committee Luncheon on Thursday; the title of her talk was, “Balancing the Equation of Professorship, Parenting, and Personal Satisfaction as a Female Chemistry Professor.”

At the Awards Banquet on Friday night, Allison Campbell spoke about her personal history that led to her present position as Associate Laboratory Director for Earth and Biological Sciences at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. NESACS was then recognized with three honors.

The E. Ann Nalley Northeast Region Award for Volunteer Service to the ACS was presented to Jack Driscoll (PID Analyzers); the Stanley C. Israel Regional Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences went to Mindy Levine. The Green Chemistry Commitment: Beyond Benign, Inc., of Wilmington, MA, and the local colleges and universities that collaborate in the program won the Marinda Wu Partners for Progress and Prosperity-Northeast P3 Award. In addition, Tracy Suggs (Vestal, NY, Senior High School) received the ACS Division of Chemical Education Northeast Region Award for Excellence in High School Teaching; the award consisted of a plaque and a check from CHED of $1,000.

NERM 2016 took place in conjunction with the 28th Electronics Packaging Symposium and Workshop.